Festival programes are free of charge for all vistitors and participants, all the films are subtitled in Slovene and English.

Free tickets are available from 10th of January 2016 onwards in Mini teater at Križevniška 1 between 10. and 12 AM and 4 and 6 PM. Tickets for Son of Saul: purchase possible at Kinodvor Ljubljana.

Space is limited, free tickets are available until the filling of availability.

G(LOVE)S FOR REFUGEES

In cooperation with ADRA Slovenia the 2nd Festival of Tolerance is organising also gathering of the humanitarian aid - gloves for refugees under the slogan G(LOVE)S FOR REFUGEES. We invite the visitors to bring a pair of gloves to the free events of the festival and help warm the hands of refugees in these cold winter days and nights!

The film represents the author’s own memory of the dawn of the World War II in Germany. Mrs. Sarika is leaving to a Jewish retirement home. Something that should have been a quiet and peaceful end of life, turned into a terror of the Holocaust and she becomes a victim as well. The film is visually inspired by the art of George Grosz and Otto Dix.

In his follow-up to Berlin Competition debut SHAHADA, Burhan Qurbani grippingly explores the driving forces of xenophobia during the violent riots in freshly reunited Germany. WE ARE YOUNG. WE ARE STRONG. recounts the incident of violent xenophobic riots in Rostock in 1992 from the perspectives of three very different characters. LIEN is a Vietnamese woman who settled in Germany, but at the end of the day she will be fighting for her life wondering if the place she called home could ever be one for her. STEFAN and his friends are part of the night's violent turmoil. Young and angry, bored during the daytime, they look forward to the nightly riots and clashes with the police and foreigners. Unable to cope with his grief at the loss of a friend, Stefan gets lost in a circle of violence. Stefan's father MARTIN is an ambitious local politician, trapped in a dilemma: does he advance his career or stand up for his ideals and take responsibility, which includes that for his son?

Local Angel is not an easy film to characterize. It is a documentary about the root causes and present contradictions of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a deeply personal odyssey of discovery, and a surreal work of art combining poetry, music, and images both beautiful and horrific. While its subtitle is “Theological Political Fragments,” the film ends by tying its many elements together in ways the viewer may not expect.

Moved by the destruction on Sept 11 of the World Trade Center, one of the temples of capitalism, Aloni returned to Israel to grapple with the concepts of sacrifice and the sacred embedded in the history of a much more ancient edifice - the Temple Mount, a Jewish touchstone on which now sits the Muslim Dome of the Rock.

The heat of the film is in Udi’s effort to understand the theological-political background he inherited from his mother, Shulamit Aloni, founder of the Israeli Civil Rights Movement in Israel and a leading peace activist. The film includes wide ranging discussions with Hanan Ashrawi - in many ways a Palestinian sister of Shulamit - and chairman Yasser Arafat, presented alongside observations of leading progressive Israeli and Palestinian scholars.

This intellectual pilgrimage is intercut with highly stylized musical sequences of Israeli singers and a Palestinian rap group (DAM), both of whom perform their work in Hebrew and Arabic. Images of mutations of Walter Benjamin's angel haunt the film from beginning to end.

Like a large, complicated canvas by a master painter, “Local Angel” is both challenging to the observer and deeply moving. It is a generous, lush, imaginative creation, a feast for the senses which is capable of restoring our faith in the human spirit.

The program is intended for elementary school pupils (7th and 8th grades) and secondary school pupils (1st grades).

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The program consists of three parts:

- screening of the film Belle and Sébastien
- Branko Lustig’s lecture about his experiences from the notorious concentration camps and the importance of tolerance, respect for others and acceptance of diversity
- discussion with the pupils

We invite you to be a part of this exceptional lecture and, through the participation in discussion, contribute to spreading the tolerance and acceptance of diversity. This program is free of charge.

ABOUT THE LECTURE

Branko Lustig will hold a lecture on his own experiences from Nazi concentration camps, and from his own rich life experience stresses the message about the necessity of forgiveness and love for others others, as well as the need to respect each human being. In order for society, and especially younger generations, to learn about the Holocaust and this tragic epoch of human history, one needs to know how to approach them. Precisely for the purpose of teaching today’s children about the atrocities of WWII concentration camps, Branko Lustig has been tireless in retelling his experiences from the camps; about the horrors that must not happen ever again. Learning and remembering must not cease. It is learning and remembering that need to serve as a warning to future generation, because that is the only way to prevent such injustices to occur again. That is the message of Branko Lustig’s lectures.

ABOUT THE LECTURER

Branko Lustigis the most famous cultural ambassador of Croatia in the world and the winner of numerous awards for film production (including two Academy Awards, for the films “Schindler’s List” and “Gladiator”). Other major Hollywood films that Lustig has worked on as a producer or executive producer include “The Peacemaker”, “Hannibal”, and “Black Hawk Down”. For many years he has worked in Hollywood as an active participant of the Academy’s Commission for Oscar Nominations and Awards. He began his career as an assistant director at Jadran film, and participated in almost all foreign film productions in the former Republic of Yugoslavia. In the Unites States he has worked with prominent directors such as Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and others. In June 2009, Mr. Lustig received an honorary doctorate of the University of Zagreb for his outstanding contribution to film industry and worldwide promotion of Croatian film. He is a lecturer at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, at the department of Production. He also holds lectures, on the topics of Holocaust and tolerance, to pupils and students all across Croatia.

Belle and Sébastien is set high in the snowy Alps during the Second World War. The resourceful Sébastien is a lonely boy who tames and befriends a giant, wild mountain dog, Belle – even though the villagers believe her to be ‘the beast’ that has been killing their sheep. At the same time, the Germans have arrived in the peaceful village looking for resistance members who are helping Jewish refugees escape to Switzerland. Through danger and adventure, Belle and Sébastien forge an indestructible friendship. Set against breath-taking scenery and a dramatic time in history, this moving story will be enjoyed by the whole family.

The history of Maribor can be characterized by many individuals who helped shape city life though different eras. One of them was doctor Klara Kukovec – the first woman doctor with a private practice in Maribor. Short documentary on Klara’s life and work depicts an image of an extraordinary decisive and dedicated person, who regardless of all life experiences worked as a private doctor even in her old age – Klara accepted her patients even at the age of 92. She practiced her profession with great love. However, it is even more important to know that she always followed her dreams.

More than 70 years after the Holocaust the hatred, antisemitism and genocide are still threatening our world. Life stories of Holocaust survivors have also survived decades and have all the time reminded us of the importance of our role as alert citizens as which we have to prevent unjustice, prejudice and hatred wherever and whenever it emerges.

Slovak musicologist Agata Schindlerová, now settled in Dresden, has spent years mapping out the forgotten destinies of Jewish musicians whose lives were irrevocably marked by the advance of Nazism. Scenes from the lives of several of them are portrayed in the film In Silence (ballet dancer Alice Flachová, pianist and conductor Karol Ebert, composer, conductor and director of the Dresden Theatre Arthur Chitz, pianist Edith Kraus, and the vocal ensemble Comedian Harmonists), which draws a sharp contrast between the protagonists’ carefree existence while working and making music during the pre-war era and the subsequent severe upheaval in their lives brought on by the proliferation of Nazism.

On April 9, 1948, a Jewish militia entered the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin and killed over 100 villagers. Soon after, a mental hospital was built on the ruins. The first patients to be committed were Holocaust survivors. A legend says that to this day, the survivors have been communicating with the ghosts of the village.

FORGIVENESS (Mechilot) tells the story of David Adler, a 20-year old American-Israeli who decides to move back to Israel, only to find himself committed to a mental institution that sits on the ruins of a Palestinian village called Deir Yassin.

Flashbacks and flashforwards reveal the events that led up to his hospitalization. A 10-year old female ghost holds the secret to the riddle. But only when the secret is revealed can she find rest and give David the option to end a perpetually-repeated destiny...

Doctor Itzhik Shemesh, a psychiatrist at the mental institute, injects David with a chemo-technological drug in an attempt to build a bridge over the trauma zone and allow David to live a normal life. Even though he doubts its ethical consequences, his use of the drug is an act that mirrors his own deep denial...

Doctor Shemesh is given permission to use the drug by David's father, Henry Adler, a Holocaust survivor who spent a short time in Israel before becoming one of the most pre-eminent musicians in America. Henry, who has the arrogance of Oedipus and faith in the rational overcoming of trauma via action, doesn't understand why his son has been hospitalized. But Henry's lust for life and his desire for normality make him live in denial of the past, which is unbearable for David, whose restless soul seeks the truth. Henry will confront a horror beyond all horrors when the truth reveals itself.

A blind patient in the hospital named Muselmann, also a Holocaust survivor, tells David to listen to the ghosts that are haunting him, that they have something important to tell him. Like the blind prophet Tiresias, Muselmann knows that the truth does not hold redemption, and this is why he never tried to reconstruct his life after the camps. Because he lives between the world of the dead and the living, Muselmann can act as a conduit between the murdered ghosts and David.

The flashbacks and flashforwards from the mental institute reveal, with the story of David’s life, the story of the eternal return of the trauma and a destiny that seems unalterable...

Program is intended for secondary school pupils (2nd, 3rd and 4th grades) and university students.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The program consists of:

- Mirko Ilić’s lecture on the topic “Symbols of Hatred”

- discussion with the pupils

We invite you to be a part of this exceptional lecture and, through the participation in discussion, contribute to spreading the tolerance and acceptance of diversity.

ABOUT THE LECTURE

Mirko Ilic will hold a multimedial lecture. He will talk about the pervasive neo-fascist iconography in public areas on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and beyond. His lecture entitled “The Symbols of Hatred” discusses local and regional problem of public suppression or neglect of the graphic symbols and hate speech of neo-Nazi groups (skinheads, neo-Nazis and extreme soccer fans) which have recently strengthened, become larger and more violent.This lecture was held already in Zagreb (to an exclusive audience), Sarajevo and Belgrade.

ABOUT THE LECTURER

Mirko Ilić is graphic designer, illustrator and lecturer. In 1995, he established Mirko Ilic Corp. in New York, a multidisciplinary studio specializing in graphic design, 3D animation, motion picture titles, and illustration. Before arriving in the U.S., Mirko Ilic art directed numerous posters, record covers and books in Europe. In 1991, he was art director of the international edition of Time Magazine. He became the art director of the New York Times Op-Ed pages in 1992. With Milton Glaser, Mirko has taught advanced design classes at the Cooper Union and currently teaches master degree classes in illustration at the School of Visual Arts. He has also written several books. Recently he has been very active in holding the lectures on the topic of the symbols of hatred.

Inspired by characters from “Alice in Wonderland,” “Waiting for Godot” and “Antigone,”young Palestinian actresses deal with the military occupation and gender oppression, violence and grief, on stage and in life.

Following the lead of their beloved director and peace activist, Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was murdered on April 4th, 2011 outside the Freedom Theater in the Jenin Refugee Camp in the West Bank, they use their imagination in an unpredictably brutal environment creating an artistic rebellion; a vivid and brave portrayal of a young, active generation of Palestinians.

The film is about Jacques Jaujard, the Director of the French National Museums during the Nazi occupation of France. He was the one who played a decisive part in the protection of thousands of artworks from private collections, belonging to prominent Jewish families or art dealers, especially those from the Louvre Museum.

As dementia continues to affect millions of elderly Americans, Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory reveals a remarkable, music-based breakthrough that has already transformed lives. Through revealing conversations with renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks and musician Bobby McFerrin, as well as powerful first-hand experiments conducted by the filmmaker and innovative social worker, Dan Cohen, this emotionally ground-breaking documentary demonstrates how music can awaken every soul.

Frank Stern specialised in lectures including short films the which stories and visual power he conciders an extremely important means for educating and reaching younger generations by which he enables new dimensions of teaching history and emotional identification. As a part of the lecture in Ljubljana Stern will show films with which the topics of holocaust and the memory of it, tolerance, migrations and current situations in Europe will be dealt with, as well as stirring up a discussion among students and triggering thinking about these questions.

The lecture is intended for secondary school pupils (2nd - 4th grade) and students.

ABOUT THE LECTURER

Frank Stern is an Austrian professor of film, modern German history and culture, lecturer at the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies of the University of Vienna, former guest professor at the Universities of Columbia, Georgetown and Berlin and outstanding authority in the field of Judaism. He isthe author of numerousacknowledgedbooks, and he initiated the Vienna Jewish Film Clubin 2008.

It Never Rained on Rhodes is a short experimental video about the universality of loss, i.e. – loss of place, heritage, youth or cultural identity, – as explored by a New York artist Barry Salzman, through the lens of one small community that suffered unspeakable losses 70 years ago. Five hundred years ago, the Jewish community on the Aegean island of Rhodes was formed in response to the Spanish Inquisition. In 1944, 1,673 people were shipped to Auschwitz from Rhodes, the farthest locale from which the Nazis deported Jews. Six months later when Auschwitz was liberated, only 151 of Rhodes’ Jewish community survived. Only few returned home.

Four modern stories of remarkable courage while setting out to uncover the forgotten life of Raphael Lemkin, the man who coined the term genocide. Inspired by Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem From Hell, Watchers of the Sky traverses time and continents to explore genocide and the cycle of violence.

Gaglianone takes on an issue as difficult as immigration, particularly in Italy, by filming in a real classroom where immigrants learn English but with a fake teacher, one of the contemporary Italian cinema’s greatest actors, Valerio Mastandrea. In My Class, the documentary naturally intersects within the artificial narrative structure, and, as a result, the film ends up becoming an inventive and powerful exercise in docufiction. There are many laughs and many tears.

Son of Saul (Hungarian: Saul fia) is a 2015 Hungarian drama film directed by László Nemes. It was screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival,[1][2] where it won the Grand Prix.[3] It has also been selected to be shown in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[4]

It is early October, 1944. Saul Ausländer (Géza Röhrig), a Hungarian-Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz works as a Sonderkommando member, burning the dead. One day he finds the body of a boy he takes for his son. He tries to salvage the body from the flames, and find a rabbi to arrange a clandestine burial. Meanwhile other members of the Sonderkommando learn about their impending extermination, rise up and destroy the crematorium. Saul keeps focused on his own plan to pay the last honours to a son he never could take care of before.

The film documents the creation of Manfred Bockelmann’s series of art works by the same name. In powerful pictures, carried by the intensity of the artist’s undertaking, this film bows to the countless children who were murdered by the Nazis, and with distressing stories at the same time reminds us of those who survived and still live with the incomprehensible past today.

Awards: 30th International Documentary Film Festival Munich, Official Selection 2015

Based on a true story. Pomßen. Saxony, 1937. Richard and Lina Kretschkopf are a young peasant couple living in a small house in the middle of German hills. Richard’s desire to have a child has grown to the point to become an obsession, especially after an event that has deeply affected him: the first Lina’s pregnancy ended up tragically. Lina appears anguished by increasingly obsessive and almost morbid behaviour of her husband, who began to build a cradle for their son that was not even conceived yet. Lina eventually learns that she is pregnant again: for Richard a new wait filled with hope begins. It will only be a bitter delusion that will put one of the most terrible events in history in motion.

Docudrama. Zürich in the mid 50‘s: The young and shy teacher Ernst Ostertag becomes a member of the gay organisation DER KREIS. There he gets to know the transvestite star Röbi Rapp – and immediately falls head over heels in love with him. Röbi and Ernst live through the high point and the eventual decline of the organization, which in the whole of Europe is seen as the pioneer of gay emancipation. Ernst finds himself torn between his bourgeois existence and commitment to homosexuality, for Röbi it is about his first serious love relationship. A relationship which will last a lifetime. The film looks back from the present to the time when the “Mother” of all European homosexual organizations had its high point to the time it slowly fell apart. While the repression against homosexuals became increasingly intense in Zurich, two young and very different men fight for their love and – together with their friends – for the gay rights.

Set in the Czech Republic in 2013, The Way Out is the story of a young Roma woman who wishes to live an ordinary life – something almost impossible for the minority she belongs to. Alone, she leads an unequal struggle against a mostly hostile majority while preserving all of her dignity and love.